1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a restraint, e.g. a corner or edge restraint for securing, and a method of using a restraint, e.g. a corner or edge restraint to secure articles, e.g. sheets in a container, e.g. a shipping and/or storage rack, and more particularly, to a corner restraint have outer surface contour, and method of applying forces to the corner of packed sheets, e.g. glass sheets, to apply basing forces to the corner restraint at a position spaced from the vertex or corner of the restraint.
2. Technical Considerations
Frangible and non-frangible articles, such as flat glass sheets, automotive transparencies, architectural glass articles, wood or metal sheets, and the like, are typically shipped in bulk to fabricators in racks. However, as is appreciated by those skilled in the art, other types of containers, e.g. bins and flatbed railcars having vertical stanchions are also used. The individual glass sheets are secured in the racks to prevent or minimize transportation forces from moving or jostling the sheets during shipping. As is further appreciated by those skilled in the art, the moving of the glass sheets can damage the sheets, e.g. scratch the surfaces of adjacent sheets and/or fracture the edges of the sheets.
In one commonly used method for shipping glass sheets, the edges of individual glass sheets are supported on the base of a rack with the sheets maintained in a generally vertical position by a sloped supporting surface of a backwall mounted to the base. In one arrangement, the sheets are secured on the rack as a unitized pack by plastic or steel banding straps and corner or edge restraints (also referred to as lash bars). An example of one such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,435. Although the use of corner restraints and banding straps to unitize packed individual glass sheets is acceptable, the presently available corner restraints have limitations. More particularly, in one arrangement, a banding strap has its course around the backwall of the rack, and around the glass sheets loaded or packed on the rack. The banding strap engages the corner restraints at each of the corners of the packed sheets farthermost from the backwall, i.e. the front corners of the packed glass sheets.
In general, the corner restraints have a pair of legs set at a 90 degrees angle to one another with one of the legs of the corner restraint contacting a side of the packed glass sheets, and the other leg of the corner restraint contacting outer surface portion of the packed glass sheets. In those instances when the corner of the packed glass sheets is at an angle of less than 90 degrees and the pair of legs of the restraint are set at 90 degrees, the corner restraint pivots about the corner of the packed glass sheets. Tightening the banding strap, in both instances discussed above, to unitize the pack of glass sheets biases the corner restraint against the packed sheets applying most of the pressure or force to the corners of the packed glass sheets, which is one of the most susceptible areas for breakage.
As is now appreciated, it would be advantageous to provide a corner or edge restraint that does not have the limitations of the presently available corner restraints, i.e. corner restraints used in combination with banding straps that maintains articles, e.g. individual packed glass sheets, as a unitized pack in a rack while reducing the forces applied to the corners of the packed glass sheets.